The present invention relates to an image forming unit management system which connects an image forming unit such as a copier to a management unit at a remote side via a communication line to transmit a user message from the image forming unit to the management unit via the communication line and to transmit a response message from the management unit to the image forming unit via the communication line.
Some image forming unit management systems have been proposed in the prior art. For example, Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication Nos. 2-257155, 2-259666 and 3-196053 disclose proposed image forming unit management systems. Each of these systems connects a plurality of image forming units (such as copiers) at user facilities to a management unit (such as a host computer) at a remote site via a public communication line.
With the proposed management systems disclosed in the above publications, the maintenance of the plurality of image forming units can be carried out by the management unit in a centralized manner. The use conditions (e.g. the number of copies) of the image forming units can be easily collected by the management unit, and the management data is utilized for the maintenance of the respective image forming units.
In the proposed management systems, some maintenance functions of the management unit are available. As one of the maintenance functions, the result of the self-diagnostic function of the image forming unit can be transmitted to the management unit after it is automatically called from the user facility via a public communication line. As another maintenance function, the management unit gains access to the image forming unit through a public communication line so that the operating condition or setting of the image forming unit can be adjusted by the management unit at the remote site.
By using the proposed management system, a message with the number of copies is transmitted from the image forming unit to the management unit via the public communication line. As the number of copies is available at the management unit with the message received from the image forming unit, a monthly charge for the maintenance of the image forming unit can be calculated based on the number of copies. Conventionally, in order to calculate the monthly charge, it was necessary to collect the maintenance data such as the number of copies by making a telephone call to the user or a maintenance person's visit to the user facility.
In some cases, the user of the image forming unit has to call a service center in order to request the repair of the image forming unit with the irregular noise or the poor copy image, to request the supply of service parts such as copy sheets or toner cartridges, or to ask how to operate the image forming unit. However, in the case of the proposed management system, it is difficult to simply and efficiently transmit a message including the request or the inquiry from the image forming unit to the management unit via the communication line. It is difficult to simply and efficiently transmit a response message from the management unit to the image forming unit via the communication line.